Hypothyroidism in Women

I am a 43 year old women who has always had long, fine hair. About the age of 30, I noticed that my hair was starting to thin in the top of my head. I had enough hair to cover it, but it was still thin.

I found out shortly after that I had hypo-thyrodism. So, now I am on synthroid — and my hair is even thinner. I don’t know what to do about it (is there anything that can be done). I am really scared that within the next four-five years, I will hardly have no hair. It’s thinning around the edges. I do get perms, but I get them every 4-6 months. I hardly put heat on my hair because I know that heat can ruin hair as well. What can I do?

Many women have the same problem as you and I sympathize with your concerns. Unfortunately, there has not been a medical breakthrough in hair restoration options for women and their unpatterned hair loss as there have been for men with male pattern hair loss. The first thing is to have your hypothyroid condition well managed. The next step may be to see a doctor who can assess the pattern of hair loss and the degree of miniaturization to understand what is going on, and to check if these measurements change over time. Beware of doctors who are eager to sell you a hair transplant surgery. Women are generally poor hair transplant candidates.